Time Undone
by K-yers
Summary: Eleanor Swartz has survived the war and is finally home. The world is recovering from the war, and as time goes on, the world changes. As Nora tries her hardest to keep in contact with her friends from the war, she'll find herself changing along with the rest of the world. Snafu/OC.
1. 1: Family

**A/N: Hey, this is a sequel to my story, Edge of the Sea. If you haven't read that story you'll be confused trying to read this one, so head's up. I think it also goes without saying that the character depictions in this story is based off how the show portrays the men and not how they were in real life. **

* * *

The mound of dirt on the grave had long ago settled, but the tombstone stood tall and read in crystal clear lettering: _David Ellis Swartz. March 3rd 1899 - January 5th 1943. Beloved Husband and Father._

Mama walked past me and laid a small handful of wildflowers on the grave, a sad smile on her face. "Oh, David." She muttered to the headstone in her thick Polish accent. "If you could see your children now."

I flinched slightly and glanced over my shoulder to where Norman was standing, leaning heavily against a cane. Norman had made that jump on D-Day, but he had gotten really badly burned as a result. Despite the fact that the injuries happened a little under two years ago, he was still in a lot of pain most days. Beside him, Velma stood with their baby in her arms.

Velma was nice enough. She still acted awkward around me, as if she was getting used to me as much as I was getting used to her. And then the baby girl, Pamela, was nearing a year old already.

Mama got up and came back over to me and wrapped me into a tight hug. "He'd be so proud of you, my Ellie." She whispered in my ear. I squeezed her back hard at the sound at that and she let out a strangled squeak. "Oh, my Ellie! Don't hurt your mama now."

I helped Mama walk away from Daddy's grave and she moved slowly due to the hip injury from last year. As we got closer to Norman and Velma, Velma took a tentative step forward. "Can I help you, Norma?"

"I don't need your help." Mama said rather curtly. Velma blinked and adjusted her hold on Pamela, who looked to be getting fussy from being held.

It had become apparent to me that Mama did not like Velma one bit. Whenever it was just the two of us, Mama would refer to Velma as "the foreign one." Considering Mama was herself an immigrant from Poland, calling Velma a foreigner was just hypocritical. I had already heard a lot of rants about how irresponsible it was of Norman to knock up some British girl and then marry her. "If he had to sleep with her," Mama had told me one evening. "Then he should have left it at that. Not bring her back with him."

Even though I thought Mama was being unfair and kind of harsh, I kind of had to agree with her. Norman was a different person whenever Velma was around, which was most of the time. While Norman had once been carefree and very vocal about his opinions, now he was always biting his tongue. And I was able to tell when he wanted to say something but didn't, because he'd open his mouth, quickly glance at his wife, and then close his mouth again. It was as though he was afraid of offending her.

"That girl knows nothing of working hard." Mama muttered to me as we continued back to the farmhouse. "If Norman was to marry anyone, he should have married someone who knew how to weed a garden at the least."

I glanced over my shoulder to see that they were still within earshot of us. Velma, her plump face normally a nice peachy color, was flushed red from embarrassment and the Florida sun beating down on us. I felt a stab of pity but looked forward to keep my focus on making sure Mama didn't fall forward and break her hip again.

As we walked slowly back to the house, my mind wandered back to Snafu.

I rarely stopped thinking about him. In the week and a half I had been home, I had already written a three page long letter telling him about coming home and how everything felt different about this place. I wrote about how being around my family again felt like I was checking to see what was left of me here, as if some part of me had gotten killed in the Pacific. Maybe the reason I was holding Snafu so close in my heart was because I still hadn't told anyone in my family about our real relationship.

Mama was vaguely uncomfortable with the fact that I was so close with the likes of Snafu, Burgin, and Sledge. Norman kept making jokes about how he hoped none of the Marines had taken advantage of me. I had snorted upon hearing that; as if any of the Marines I had been with had the balls to try and force themselves on me. Then I had shifted uncomfortably at that thought and held my tongue. I hadn't told them everything that happened over there, so they knew nothing about the Jap that had attacked me.

By the time we reached the house, Mama and I could hear baby Pamela crying. Mama sighed heavily and shook her head. "She needs to learn how to calm her baby down."

"Mama," I muttered sharply. "She's still new to this."

"Bah!" Mama snapped back. "New to it. That baby's a year old. If she hasn't got it down by now, that spells trouble."

There seemed to be no convincing her otherwise. I helped her up the porch steps and into the house. A little farther behind Norman and Velma were moving slower, due to Pamela having been put on the ground and allowed the toddler to shakily walk herself. From here, they looked like a real family.

Mama went straight to the kitchen, pulling a jug of sweet tea from the new ice box. "Have you seen this yet, Ellie?" She asked, pouring me a glass and handing it to me. "One of the farm hands bought it for me the first Christmas you and Norman were gone."

"That was really nice of them." I said as the front door opened and closed again. Norman entered the kitchen, his eyes narrowed. He gave our mother a heated glare as Velma entered, helping Pamela toddle along. I stared at my niece before looking back at Velma. "When is her birthday again?"

Velma blinked in alarm at me. "Oh, her birthday is April fourth."

"I was on my way to San Francisco then," I replied. I looked to Pamela as the toddler stared at me. "Sorry I missed your birthday, kiddo." Pamela hid behind her mother's legs.

"We were so relieved to have received your telegram," Velma gushed, her accent sticking out hard. From across the kitchen, Mama threw Velma a dirty look, seemingly annoyed that Velma had had the audacity to have been relieved about me. "How was Hawaii?"

I swallowed my sip of sweet tea. "Pretty nice. Not a lot of tourists around though. Beaches were pretty."

Velma nodded, looking slightly more awkward. "I imagine that the war in the Pacific was vastly different than the war in Europe. Certainly lasted longer over there."

Norman shot his wife a quick glance but Mama flat out glared at her. Velma suddenly realized what she had said and looked around the room apologetically. "Oh! I'm so sorry, Eleanor! I didn't mean to bring up the war, it just came up." Her eyes filled with sudden tears and she rushed from the room. Norman stared after her before limping after her. Pamela, alarmed by the sudden disappearance of her parents, started crying. Mama swung around to face me.

"You see what I mean, Ellie?" She asked, coming over and scooping Pamela up and holding the toddler to her chest. "Your brother married a weak willed woman."

"Mama," I said sharply. "It was an accident. Barely anything happened."

"Accident or not," Mama snapped, patting Pamela on the back and calming the baby down again. "I know how your father acted whenever someone brought up the Great War to him. I'll be damned to hell before I let some foreign bitch make my babies go through their pain again."

"I think you're going 'bout it the wrong way, though." I countered. Mama shook her head at me and left the kitchen, taking a whimpering Pamela with her. I sat alone at the kitchen table for a while longer, chugging sweet tea until it was gone.

Mama was in the living room sitting with Pamela on the sofa. I could hear Norman and Velma's voices coming from the room that Norman and I used to share, or the room I had to myself now. I rolled my eyes and left the house and into the humid late April air.

There were a large cluster of blackberry bushes on the edge of the woods, and I went there and started picking, occasionally tossing a berry into my mouth but I was mostly trying to collect them. I imagined Snafu here with me and I smiled sadly.

Back inside, I could hear Mama and Norman having a hushed argument. I snuck into the kitchen and put the berries into a bowl before sneaking outside again. When I got off the porch, I finally noticed Velma following Pamela around as the toddler wandered around aimlessly. Velma caught my eye and she quickly dropped it.

Velma wiped her eyes as I approached. "I'm sorry for that in there." I told her the moment I was close enough. Velma blinked and turned to stare at Pamela.

"Your mother hates me." She said it matter of factly.

I didn't see the point of lying to her. "She does for now. You're still new here, Velma. Mama just doesn't know you yet."

"She doesn't want to know me!" Velma exclaimed. "When I first arrived, I tried to tell her about my mother and father, and your mother wasn't interested in the slightest. All because I told her that my mother and I were seamstresses. I tried telling her about how in Aldbourne, there were lots of American Airborne coming through. Mother and I would clean their uniforms and make repairs to them; that's how Norman and I met." She paused. "After Norman left, I volunteered to be a nurse. When Norman came through, it was like God put him there, as awful as that sounds."

I shook my head slightly. "I think Mama doesn't like that you and Norman got married so fast and without telling anyone first. And then you came over with Pamela right there. It's a lot to take, you know?"

"I suppose," Velma said begrudgingly. "Florida is not what I expected either. Back home, when I thought of Florida, I thought of beaches."

I chuckled. "Yeah, no one really thinks of this part of Florida. I like to call this part 'southern Alabama.'" Velma blinked at my joke, not getting it. I shrugged it off. "It's an adjustment, I'm sure. But Norman loves you. Give it some time and I think Mama will come around."

Velma still looked unconvinced but nodded along anyway. Pamela squatted and tried putting a dandelion in her mouth. Velma stopped her just as Norman stalked out of the house, his facial burns making his frown look even more pronounced.

"See ya next week, Ellie." Norman snapped at me, collecting his wife and daughter up fast before hustling them over to their Pontiac. I watched them go as they drove away before going back inside.

It wasn't hard to find Mama. She was sitting at the kitchen table, crying into her hands. I felt as though I needed to go over and comfort her, but right now my mind felt tired and numb. With a regretful look backwards, I disappeared into my bedroom and swung myself down onto the bed.

Our family was back together again, so why did we feel so separated?


	2. 2: Heart Attack

My final payment from the Marines came in the mail a couple of days later. I did some math in my head fast and figured that this last allowance would keep me going for a couple of months, so long as I lived at home with Mama without paying rent. If I wanted to get my own place, I'd need a job.

There were jobs open for the men coming home, technically speaking there should be a job opening for me somewhere. The problem was that Cottondale was a small ass town with very limited jobs. Norman was apparently lucky to get at the hardware store. I knew almost every single person in this town and, including myself and Norman, a dozen people left to fight that war. Two of them never came home and the rest either moved to bigger towns and cities or had been here already before I got here. I was the last one home.

On my first Wednesday back home, I did my hair and makeup and put on an old dress of mine before taking the truck into town. The dress was an old floral one I had worn a lot before the war, and now it fit looser from the weight I had lost. I drove off the main highway that ran through town and pulled over. There were a few places around here that could be hiring. A few gas stations might need someone to attend them, and there was a meat processing plant that had opened a year before the war just a little farther down the road. There was a possibility of anyone of those places needing someone to work.

The gas stations, however, had already hired a lot of veterans coming back home. If not veterans, than older men who had been working here the whole war or high school boys working their first job in order to get some money. As for the meat processing company, the manager took one look at me in my dress and turned me away, barely looking at my resume before telling me that they had no positions available. I had no choice but to bite my tongue and get back to the truck to head home.

When I got back home to the farm, Mama was out in the barn milking the cow. The handful of farmhands were out in the field. The farm hands ranged from teenaged boys who had taken a summer job to the men the colored men looking for work in a small town.

I went back inside and kicked off the brown heels I had been wearing. I scratched absentmindedly at my curls before heading into the kitchen. I was halfway through my lunch of cold milk and a turkey sandwich when Mama came back into the house.

"What're you doing, Ellie?" Mama asked, frowning slightly at me but continuing on to get a glass of water.

"Job hunting didn't go so well." I explained. "Can't get a job in this town, not without going somewhere else entirely."

Mama frowned and sat down across from me. "There should be a few places right outside of town? Maybe?"

I shook my head. "Not that I know of. I just know I need to build up my money."

"Are you in a hurry to move away?" Mama asked, giving me a pointed look over her water glass.

"Kind of." I said bluntly. "I don't wanna live here forever. Mama, I'm nearly twenty five years old: I need a job and I need my own space."

"Is every vet gettin' their own place right away?" Mama countered. "Marcus Wayne couple miles down the road is still with his mama and daddy."

"I don't give a shit 'bout what Marcus Wayne is doing." I fired back, beginning to lose patience. "Marcus is older than me and Norman anyhow, and he was living with his parents before the war even started." Mama had seemed to forget that Marcus Wayne was a full four years older than me and Norman, and had been the oldest out our town to go to fight.

Mama glared at me. "When did you get in a hurry to move on with your life?"

When I made a deal with Snafu to stay with him in Breaux Bridge in a couple of weeks. When I got there, I didn't want to be completely dependent on him for money. Mama didn't know anything about Snafu though, I had been holding that particular relationship as close to my heart as I could get it. I shook my head at her. "It's complicated, Mama."

She got up and started to wash out her glass, setting in on the drying rack before turning to look at me. "How 'bout this," She started. "You do some work 'round here, and I'll give you some pay for the work you do."

I stared at her. "You sure?"

Mama nodded. "Those farm hands do their damndest in the fields; you milk the cow, feed the animals, help the hands harvest when the time come, and I'll pay you the same as them. They make 'bout a dollar fifteen a day. Good pay for good work."

A dollar fifteen a day would get me just over twenty six dollars if I started working tomorrow. It was not the amount I wanted when I saw Snafu again, but it was an amount I was willing to take just to see him again.

Mama and I shook on the terms and the next morning I was up before dawn to feed the chickens and get the eggs from them. By the time Mama woke up, I had already collected the eggs and was on my way back out to get fresh milk from the cow.

"You really want that money," Mama commented, raising an eyebrow at me.

"I really do." I called over my shoulder as I walked out the door again.

The farm hands got here a little while after that, heading straight to the fields to get their work done. They waved hello to me as they moved past me. I waved right back and spent the next half hour prepping and milking the cow. By the time I was done, the sun had begun to rise and I carried the jugs of fresh milk back up towards the house.

The entire day was spent bouncing from spot to spot on the farm, picking blueberries from the far end of the field and helping Mama package everything into boxes. Around six in the evening, Mama sent me with the boxes into town to sell the fresh blueberries to the grocer's.

By the time I got back home, the farm hands were on their way back to their homes and Mama was waiting on the front porch. When I handed her the money from the grocer, she asked, "How tired are you, my dear?"

I was exhausted. My muscles hadn't ached like this in a long time, and a few strands of my hair stuck to my face from the sweat. But it felt nice to have something to do again; there hadn't been a moment today where I had been sitting idle, and that kind of business felt good. It gave me less time to think about the people I left behind, and the possibility of ever seeing them again.

I smiled at Mama and shrugged. "One of the best days I've had in a long time." She smiled at me and I went inside to wash up. When I was done, I sat down on one of the rocking chairs with a small stack of paper and a pen. Using an old hardback book from inside as a desk, I started writing Snafu a letter.

I told him about the unsuccessful job hunt, how Mama gave me a job, and, after hesitating for a minute or two, I added that I missed him. I finished off the letter as fireflies started to appear farther out on the property. I sealed the envelope and got it ready to be sent off the next morning.

* * *

I started getting letters from Snafu, Sledge, Burgin, Leyden, and even Trager over the course of the next few days. Burgin told me about how Florence was on her way over from Australia and that he was waiting for her to come to him before they started making any hard plans for the wedding. Leyden told me about adjusting to life back at home, and Trager wrote me a four page letter about how hard he was finding it to be back home. Apparently Trager had spent his whole life before the war denying his attraction to men, and now that he knew that part of him, he hated hiding himself away again. They all wrote to me about how difficult it was to adjust back to civilian life after years of living in places like Pavuvu and Okinawa.

Snafu's letter made me smile all throughout work that day. _I got a space ready for you for when you get here, Nora. I can't wait to see you again._

Mama questioned the amount of letters coming for me, but I just told her that they were all from men I had served with. She had frowned and let me be. For days I held those letters close to my heart, ready to see Snafu again and happy to write back to every man who wrote to me.

It was almost a week away from me going to stay and visit with Snafu and I started worrying about how I was going to explain to Mama and Norman that I'd be staying with a former Marine in Louisiana for an entire month. I could practically hear the lecture from Mama, ranting about how Norman had knocked up a random woman that he had slept with. The Lord himself would need to help me survive Mama's wrath if I got pregnant by accident.

On May nineteenth, Mama was up before I was. I frowned when I saw her in the kitchen, unused to seeing her awake at this time. Ever since I had started working on the farm for pay, she had started to sleep in more, getting up to do simple chores around the house. I came into the kitchen and looked at her with narrowed eyes. "Why are you up already?"

Mama squinted at me for a long moment. "Woke up to some awful pain, dear. I'm fine, I'm sure."

"Pain?" I echoed, my mind going straight back to my corpsman training. "What hurts?"

"My chest." She replied. "Feels like someone's got a hard squeeze on it."

"Well, that doesn't sound good." I said bluntly. I hurried over and Mama blinked at me as I placed my hand on her back and pressed hard. "That hurt?"

"Yes," Mama said through gritted teeth and I stopped.

"You gotta go to the hospital." I said bluntly.

She waved a hand at me. "I don't need no such thing. Go get on your work, Ellie. Don't worry 'bout me."

I stared for a long time, my corpsman instinct ordering me to stay put and get her to a hospital. "Mama, the nearest hospital is a couple towns over. It'd take a while to get there. C'mon; we can go before your chest pain gets worse."

Mama rolled her eyes at me and got up from the table. "I don't need the hospital, Ellie. I'm fine really; _really_. Go get your job done."

I hesitantly left the kitchen and collected the eggs from the chickens, keeping my eye on the house. When I came back inside to drop off the eggs, Mama was in the bathroom, leaning over the sink and pressing her hand into her chest.

"I'm taking you to the hospital." I said bluntly, grabbing the truck keys. "C'mon."

Mama put up a slight fuss but eventually agreed and got into the truck, trying to put up a slight fight as she went. But she quieted down once I started driving towards the hospital in Marianna, Florida. It was a fifteen minute drive, as the more time went by, the worse Mama's chest pain got. By the time we got to the hospital, Mama was groaning and clutching her chest right over her heart.

I hurried Mama into the hospital and the nurse quickly took her away in a wheelchair, diagnosing a heart attack the moment she saw what was happening. I had to stay in the waiting room until it passed or a doctor saw her.

I called Norman's house and Velma answered on the sixth ring. "Hey, Velma. Mama had a heart attack. She's with a doctor now, I don't know what they're doing back there. Could you let Norman know?"

After Velma and I hung up, I sat down and began the wait to see what'll happen to Mama. I wasn't worried, not until a doctor hurried out and looked at me for a moment before approaching me.

"Miss Swartz?" Dr. Jacobs said as he approached me. I stood up and nodded. Dr. Jacobs sighed and continued, "Your mother had a heart attack this morning. We've managed to stabilize her, but for now she's at risk for cardiac arrest."

I stared at him and struggled to find the right words. "Uh, is she, is she okay?"

"We want to keep her under surveillance for the next twenty four hours," Dr. Jacobs explained. "Just to make sure."

I nodded. "Yeah, yeah, okay. Um, can I see her?" The moment the question was out of my mouth, a nurse heard a beeping and bolted into the back room. Dr. Jacobs didn't give me a second glance before charging after her. I heard the beeping of a machine and a shiver of cold went down my spine. I started moving without thinking, heading towards them and instinct pushing me forward to go and see who was hurting and how I could help.

It wasn't until a nurse rushed out and physically stopped me did I realize that I was a civilian, and I couldn't just walk back there.

But that was my mom back there.

At six fifty one in the morning, Norma Swartz was declared dead. Died of a massive, unsurvivable heart attack.

I stayed at the hospital until Norman showed up, having come here straight from work. Velma had called him the moment she had hung up with me. Norman looked at me sitting in the waiting room with my head in my hands and within two seconds Norman grabbed ahold of me and held on tight. I buried my face into my brother's shoulder but no tears came; it was all too soon, too sudden.

The days passed in a blur. Norman and I buried Mama in a grave right beside Daddy's. We ordered a stone to say _Norma Magdalena Swartz. January 9th, 1900 - May 19th, 1946. Beloved Wife and Mother._

Norman, Velma, and Pamela stayed at the house with me for several hours after our small funeral was done. Once they left, I pulled out a sheet of paper and wrote a very quick letter to mail off the next morning.

_Dear Snaf, My mom died a few days ago. I know you're waiting for me to come and see you, but I don't think I'll be able to this month. With everything that's going on right now, someone's got to stay behind and run the farm. I'm so sorry._

I addressed and sealed the letter before I could second guess a word of it. This would be the shortest letter I had ever sent to him, and it would arrive sometime after I was supposed to get there. I sighed heavily, and my voice broke.


	3. 3: Fourth of July

Life demanded to keep moving.

The farmhands that had once worked for Mama couldn't be left without a job, so I made sure they could still come and work and I paid them the same amount that Mama paid them. Norman couldn't stay at the house for very long; he had a job to do and a wife and daughter to take care of. Velma would come by whenever she felt like she could walk the half mile between our houses so that I could visit with baby Pamela, but those visits were rare.

I was suddenly in charge of the entire farm with all of the product and finances. Mama had always been great at math, and as I looked at the summaries of the bills and statements, I couldn't help but scratch my head and wish Mama was still here to help me.

Then I just wished that Mama was here in general and I felt heavy all over again.

The house now seemed deafening with how silent it was. Unless I was moving around and making noise, the house was dead silent. It didn't even fucking creak the way old houses do. I dealt with the silence by staying outside most of the day, doing my mundane and repetitive work and by making as much noise as possible whenever I was inside.

I bought a radio that I would move around the house with me, so that noise would be happening when I sat and worked on finances or when the day was done and I could sit in my living room and listen to radio shows or music that came in through the static. On the day where I needed to work in the garden beside the house for a while, I'd prop the small radio on the windowsill above the garden and listen to music while I worked in the garden. That radio was helping out a lot.

I tried not to think about how empty the house felt. I tried not to think about how if I had maybe driven Mama to the hospital sooner, she might still be here. I knew that was a dangerous mindset to go down; I had veered myself away from that mindset while in the Pacific and men died underneath my hands. But I had my friends been there to help me back then; Ack Ack Haldane had been there to help out of that mindset. Here I was surrounded by loud silence and slept alone every night.

Norman would come by every Monday and Friday, and I'd go to his house every Tuesday and Thursday. I had to remind myself that Norman had lost a mother too. Velma helped the pair of us out by cooking all day and making sure I went home with plenty of casseroles and gelatins. Velma was rather proud of her gel cookery and Norman and I just ate it to avoid hurting her feelings.

Velma cornered me one Thursday before I left, a small journal in her hands. "When my grandmother died, it helped me to write everything down. Just write about your day and what you think about during it. It may help."

My first passage in this new diary just read, _This is stupid._

I ended up using the paper to write a very long letter to Sledge, telling him everything from Mama dying just a month after getting home to telling Snafu and cancelling our plans to stay with each other to how I'm trying to cope.

I missed Sledge. Last letter I got from him told me that Sledge had promised to never wear the Marine uniform ever again and how he had zero interest in getting a job at the moment. He had also advised that I could go into a college to become a doctor or nurse. I frowned remembering it and wanted none of it. I wasn't interested in becoming a real doctor. I had felt blood coating my hands and had felt my fingers brush against innards during surgery. I had felt men die as I had struggled to stop their bleeding. I never wanted to do that again.

It was easy to ignore the grief when I was busy. As the days went by, I kept myself busy from dawn until dusk. I made rounds around the land, pouring myself into whatever work needed to be done. I went out to the field and talked to the farmhands who kept the product good; occasionally I'd help them out. From an outsider's perspective, I had this grieving under control.

I still had nightmares every single night though.

The imagery from Okinawa seemed magnified in my nightmares. Every night was plagued with visions of broken men and Japs charging at the line. I'd wake up with the phantom feeling of mud squishing under my feet and blood coating my hands.

June went by slowly. I used my work to distract from the fact that I was living alone. The fact that I barely talked to anyone besides Norman, his family, and the farmhands. The fact that I was supposed to be in Louisiana with Snafu.

When the fourth of July came, I barricaded myself in my house with no intentions of coming out. I turned the radio up as loud as it could go, using the voices of Abbott and Costello to drown out the distant sounds of fireworks. My neighbor a little over a mile away was apparently throwing a party; I saw a crowd of trucks and vans on the outskirts of their property earlier today and now they were starting to let loose some random fireworks.

It took me a moment to hear to pounding knock at my door. The door didn't have a peephole, so I opened it and found myself frozen when I saw who was standing there.

Snafu stared at me for a long moment before a smile slowly came across his face. "Hiya, Nora."

"Hiya." I said softly. I shook my head and stood back. "I'm sorry, come in."

Snafu moved past me and stared around the house. The moment I closed the door behind him, Snafu looked back at me and looked me up and down. "You look different not covered in mud, Nora."

I let out a breathless laugh without meaning to. "I was about to say the same thing about you. I mean, what on earth are you wearing?" I reached out and tugged at his sleeve. His clothes were clean and his blue button down looked new. His black hair had grown out but because it was considered kind of fluffy, it seemed to grow vertically.

Snafu laughed at me and pointed to me. "Me? Look at you, Nora. You're wearing a dress!"

"You saw me wear a skirt before," I pointed out. I paused. "Judge my dress later. Why are you here, Snaf?"

He shrugged and moved farther into the house and I followed him into the living room. Snafu plopped himself onto the couch and looked up at me. "I got your letter a few weeks ago and I remember what it was like when my ma died. I came down here to help."

I narrowed my eyes. "Help with what?"

"Stop acting dumb, Nora." Snafu said. "I'm here to help out with whatever it is you need." He blinked and smiled up at me. "That and we promised to stay with each other every now and then. I don't think it's fair to postpone that. So I'm here."

I sat down on the couch beside him and didn't say anything for a moment. Did we resume where we left off? My unasked question was swiftly answered when Snafu looked at me with an air of what could have been confused with nervousness. "Are you okay with that, Nora?"

"I'm completely fine with that." I said. "It's been getting too empty in this house."

Snafu's hand rested gently on top of mine and I turned my hand to twin my fingers with his. Snafu looked at me and shifted so that his head rested on my shoulder. "I've missed you, Nora."

"I've missed you too," I said softly. I heard the faint boom of fireworks outside and stiffened without thinking. "I don't miss that though."

Snafu got up and found my radio, turning it up so that the fireworks couldn't be heard. He came back into the living room and helped himself to looking around the house. I watched him move around couldn't really believe that he was actually here.

He came back into the living room after inspecting the room I had grown up in. "You still sleeping in there? I noticed the big bedroom down the hall."

"Doesn't feel right to move into that room yet," I said, getting up. "You want a beer? I think I may need one."

"You in shock that I'm here?" Snafu asked, following after me.

I went into the kitchen and pulled out two bottles of beer, handing him one. "Very much so. I thought I wouldn't see you for a while now and suddenly you're on my front porch with a bag to stay for a while and you're snooping through my house. This doesn't feel real, Snaf."

"Cheers to that." Snafu tapped his beer bottle against mine and he made me laugh. Snafu smirked at the sight of my smile and nodded towards the door. "I can always clear out if you need. I'm sure this town's got a hotel."

"One, it doesn't." I said. "Cottondale's a very small town, Snaf. Two, I'm not kicking you out on the street. You can stay here; I mean wasn't that the plan in the first place?"

Snafu nodded and took a swig from his beer. "I missed you a lot, Nora."

"You've already said that." I pointed out.

"And I'm probably gonna say it more while I'm here." He countered. "Burgie says hi by the way. He got a letter to me right before I left home."

I gave him a tired smile. Snafu had moved over to the window and was peeking out of it to look at the darkened yard outside. I watched him for a while, still not fully believing that he was here. But somehow he was. I took another drink of beer as the house filled with the sound of the radio and Snafu's voice.


	4. 4: Here

I half expected to wake up and Sanfu be gone, like he was never there. But Snafu was snoring on my couch when I woke up the next morning and I stared at him for a moment. He really had come.

I decided to let him sleep in as I went outside to get a head start on the day's work. I hurried and collected the eggs from the chicken coop and brought the cow out from the barn and into the field. In the distance, I could see the farmhands showing up as I brought the eggs inside the house.

Snafu kept sleeping as I stored the fresh eggs and picked up some eggs from yesterday. Most of these will be packaged and taken into town, but I could spare a few for breakfast. I started a pot of coffee and began frying eggs on the skillet.

"Mornin' Nora." Snafu said sleepily, sneaking up behind me and leaning over me to look at the eggs. I looked up at him and smiled in a small way.

"Morning." I said. "Today's a packaging day, so I'll probably spend most the day inside."

"I can help." Snafu said immediately. He rested his chin on my shoulder and the immediate closeness was surprising yet welcome all the same. "What do I need to do?"

"Um," I shrugged his chin off my shoulder and moved over to where the rest of the eggs were stored. I showed him the eggs and the cartons for them. "You can fill the cartons with eggs if you want."

"Got it, Nora." Snafu said, hurrying over to make himself busy. As he passed me, he landed a very quick peck on the top of my head and I found myself blushing hard as a result.

I didn't have much of a reason to be bashful around Snafu. We had already had sex with each other; there had been a time where I had considered Snafu to be the person I was closest to. But that had been in the middle of a warzone, and now the man sitting at my dining table sorting eggs into cartons seemed like a familiar person that I had known a long time ago. He wasn't the same man I had known in the war, and I knew that I wasn't the same person I had been in the war. I got the feeling that as long as he was here, we'd be edging around each other trying to find what parts of us were still remaining.

After breakfast, Snafu trailed after me as I led the way to where the apple trees grew at the edge of the property. He insisted on me holding the basket while he climbed the tree to get the fruit. I caught about half of the apples he threw down at me, and every time I missed, Snafu just laughed and encouraged me to catch more.

By the time the basket was full, Snafu and I were both sweating from the heat and Snafu hopped down from the tree. He took the basket from my hands and carried it back to the house. He helped me package the apples and load them into the back of my truck.

Snafu helped out as much as he possibly could that day, and the longer he hung around me, the more used to him I got. It was a different experience having someone constantly around me. Even when Mama was here, we worked on our own separate projects. Snafu wanted to be around me all the time, and it felt nice walking with him around the farm and house.

It was easy to forget that Norman was supposed to stop by. Velma, seeing as she didn't have a job other than take care of Pamela, had begun cooking nearly all day. Norman was supposed to stop by and bring me the extra casserole.

I heard Norman's car driving down the dirt road as Snafu and I sat in the kitchen. I got up and looked at Snafu. "That must be Norman." I said. "He doesn't know you're here."

Snafu clicked his tongue and shook his head at me. "Shame on you, not telling your brother I'm here."

"Oh shut up." I said, just as Norman used his key to open the front door.

"Ellie?" Norman's voice sounded from the front door and I came out from around the corner to greet my brother. Norman blinked at me and looked taken aback for a moment before he smiled.

"Hey, Norman." I said. "How's it going?"

"Good," Norman replied. "Why're you acting weird?"

I shrugged at the same exact moment Snafu dropped a spoon against the counter. I glanced quickly at him and he met my eyes evenly. I looked back to Norman, who had gone from relaxed to tense. I pointed to the kitchen doorway.

"One of my buddies from the Marines is here." I explained. "I told you about him: Snafu. I told him about Ma and he came over to help."

Norman nodded once and went past me to go into the kitchen. Snafu and Norman locked eyes and stared at each other for a long time before Norman set the casserole from Velma down on the table. I watched as Snafu and Norman shook hands and nodded to each other.

"Nice to meet ya, Norman." Snafu said. "Nora told us all 'bout you. We kept up with the airborne 'cause of you."

Norman smirked in a friendly way and looked genuinely surprised. "Well then. Nora wrote me about you and pretty much everyone else as well. It's real kind of you to come down and help after Ma passed."

Snafu shrugged. "It's nothing really. My own ma died when I was nine." He waved a hand towards where I was standing. "Nora's a good person. Figured I'd come and help out when she needed it."

Norman stayed for only a little while longer, talking to Snafu and eating the casserole he had brought with him. When it was time for Norman to leave, he and I walked to the front door and my brother glanced back to the kitchen doorway to where Snafu was still at.

"He seems like a good guy." Norman said. "I gotta go home and see Velma and Pamela. See you at dinner tomorrow?"

I nodded. "Y'all will. Snaf will probably come along too. Don't know what else he'll do for dinner if I'm not here."

Norman snorted and nodded. "Fine by me. I'll let Velma know."

After Norman left, I went back into the kitchen to see Snafu sitting at my table, tapping a carton of cigarettes on the tabletop. "Can I smoke?" He asked. I nodded, opening the window as he lit up.

"It's been awhile since I smelled cigarette smoke." I said, taking the seat across from Snafu. He held out the carton and lighter to me and after a moment's pause, I took a cigarette out and the lighter. "Thank you."

"Anything for you, Nora." Snafu said. We sat in a comfortable silence for a long while, smoking cigarettes as the smoke lazily floated out the open window. I looked over to Snafu to where he was trying and failing to make smoke rings. I smiled to myself and sighed heavily.

"I'm really happy you came here, Snaf." I said. Snafu let out a giant puff of smoke and he grinned at me, his light blue eyes shining brightly.

"I'm fucking thrilled I decided to show up, Nora." He replied. He smiled and for a moment I was transported back to the ship leaving China, where I saw that smile more than I had before that point. I had missed it.

I stubbed the cigarette out and got up, moving towards Snafu deliberately. He watched me with thoughtful eyes as I went over to him and I kissed him deeply. He tasted of cigarettes and dinner and in that moment I loved it. Snafu kissed me back hard and he followed me eagerly when I led him back to the bedroom.

When Snafu and I had sex, it was like we were trying to make up for lost time. I figured that we were. All I knew for a fact was that Snafu was kissing my jawline, and a fistful of his hair was in my hand.

Snafu fell asleep soon after, and when he did, he kept one arm wrapped tightly around my bare waist and his other arm resting next to my head. I didn't want to be anywhere else but here.


	5. 5: Going Steady

What had originally been a month long visit (as we had originally planned all the way back in China), Snafu refused to leave. Whenever I had brought up the subject of him getting ready to leave soon, Snafu would cleverly dance around the subject, refusing to answer directly.

"Our month is almost over." I had pointed out.

"That so?" Snafu had countered, not making eye contact and continuing to push around the cooking vegetables around the pan. He stabbed a stalk of asparagus with a fork and held it out so it was hovering a couple of inches away from my face. "Try this? This need more salt?"

"I'm sure it's fine, Snaf." I said, taking the fork from him. "We seriously need to figure out how to get you to the train station."

"I think this needs more garlic salt," Snafu avaded my statement. "You need more spice in your life, Queenie." Ever since Snafu had taken to cooking almost every dinner a few weeks ago, he had been throwing nearly every spice into our food. I blamed the fact that he was from Louisiana and he was used to his own palette.

Nearly every conversation had been like this one up until the day he was supposed to leave, when Snafu had disappeared for a few hours. We had said our goodbyes, and the bastard had convinced me he had gotten a ride to the train station. But then he showed up at the end of the day in time for dinner.

"What the fuck are you doing here?" I asked, my voice going shrill in my surprise that he was standing on my front porch again.

"Decided not to go just yet." Snafu replied with a shrug. "You still need me hanging around, Queenie. So I got a job at a lumber mill, time to start pulling my weight around here."

I stared blankly at him for a moment. "I'm sorry, what?"

"Relax," Snafu said, winking at me and a smirk creeping onto his face. "You got dinner going already? Thought tonight was Norman and Velma's turn for dinner."

Snafu had indeed gotten a job at the local lumber mill, and he didn't seem to have any intentions about going back to Louisiana. "Do you even still have a home in Louisiana anymore?" I asked a month past his leave date.

Snafu had shrugged. "Don't know. You're a part of my home now, Nora."

I squinted at him for a moment before grumbling, "Damn you, Shelton." Snafu had smiled broadly.

Sledge thought the whole situation was hilarious and threatened to move in with me as well. Burgin wrote me six whole pages talking about how happy he was that Snafu and I were living together, seeing as we were "right for each other." Burgin also filed me in and told me that Florence had made it to him, and that Snafu and I were invited to the wedding happening in January of next year. I smiled at that and wondered if Snafu would still want to hang around here for that long. It was almost October; January was still four months away.

Norman was the most disgruntled about Snafu still hanging around. My twin's easy going attitude about Snafu being around had dissolved the moment he realized Snafu wasn't going away any time soon. When Norman and Velma came over for dinner, I'd catch my twin watching Snafu with narrowed eyes, as if he couldn't quite figure out what Snafu was planning.

I was pretty sure that Snafu was just planning to move in permanently.

On September twenty ninth, before it was time for bed, I sat cross legged on the bed facing Snafu, glaring at him slightly. "Please give me a straight answer. Do you want to officially move in? You've been acting like you're prepared to go back to Louisiana for a month now. If you want to move in officially, that's fine. You already live here for God's sake!"

Snafu blinked at me and a slow smile spread across his face. "That'd be nice, Nora. Thanks for the invitation."

I bit back a bout of laughter at him, trying not to show him my laughter. But Snafu saw anyway and launched forward, wrapping an arm around my waist and blowing a raspberry on the side of my neck. I shrieked in surprise that quickly dissolved into wild laughter as Snafu refused to let me go.

* * *

Even in January, Texas had a dry heat to it. I missed the humidity of Florida, not at all comfortable in this dry air. I could tell that Snafu looked just as uncomfortable as I did, and he kept plucking at the sleeves of his shirt. The Burgin wedding was today, and we had dressed up nicely for the occasion.

"How many people from King do you think will be there?" I asked. We were just leaving the hotel to find a taxi to take us to the church.

Snafu shrugged. "Sledgehammer said he'll be there. I don't really care 'bout anyone else."

"Yes, you do." I said dryly, smoothing out my skirt as our cab finally arrived.

Snafu noticed my fussing over my skirt and narrowed his eyes at me. "Stop your messin' Nora. You look lovely." He opened the door to the cab and held my hand as I climbed into the cab.

We didn't talk much on the ride over to the church. The white building stood at the corner of the town street, and people were already milling about outside waiting for the church doors to open. I gasped softly at the sight of so many familiar faces, and I felt Snafu inhale sharply. We paid the cab driver incredibly fast and hurried out of the car to see everyone.

Sledge was like a beacon, his bright red hair shining in the winter Texan sun. Snafu nudged me softly before full on charging into his friend, nearly bowling Sledge to the ground. I sped walked after him right as Leyden turned and smiled widely at me.

"Queen!" Leyden screamed. He limped over to me and folded me into an embrace. "Civilian life looks good on you, Swartz." We separated and he scarring on his face bent slightly with his smile. Snafu interrupted the moment by bowling into him.

I turned to Sledge and my face actually hurt from smiling so hard at him. Sledge and I hugged each other tightly, not saying anything for a moment as we held onto each other. Only when we separated did I say, "I've missed you, Sledge."

He beamed. "I've missed you too, Nora. You and Snaf seem happy together."

I wanted to say something along the lines of how unofficial my relationship with Snafu was. We weren't exactly dating, we didn't go on dates or anything like that. The two of us were content with cooking dinner together. And we were sleeping with each other on a semi regular basis, and we lived in the same house. But I had no idea what the actual label Snafu and I had.

Snafu bowled into Sledge again before I could say anything of the sort. Snafu glanced between me and Sledge and smiled wolfishly. "Together again. All we're missing is Burgie."

"He should be here soon." Sledge said. "It is his own damn wedding."

"Queen!" I heard a hauntingly familiar voice cry and I excused myself from Snafu and Sledge to go say hello to the speak. Sheridan shook my hand tightly, looking younger than he had been when I had known him. It was as if the peaceful time we lived in now had taken five years off of him. "How have you been?" Sheridan asked.

"Keeping it together. You?" I asked.

"Can't complain. Going steady with a sweetheart since last September." Sheridan practically glowed at this news. Maybe that girl was the reason he looked so much livelier.

Sheridan and I weren't talking for long before Perkins slowly approached. I hadn't seen him since the day he was taken off the line and discharged. The scar that marred his face started from one corner of his mouth and slashed backward to underneath his ear. The scar tissue was light brown and aged, showing how he'd been living with it for years. Sheridan took one look at Perkins and launched himself into an embrace, holding onto his friend tightly. Someone behind Perkins caught my eye and I recognized the girl I had only seen in a picture.

The girl that Perkins had married was very pretty. Her blond hair shone in the Texas winter sun and her glasses were slightly fogged from the heat. But it was the young baby in her arms that made me freeze. The baby was less than a year old, and I couldn't think of any other reason for Perkins's wife to be carrying a baby unless it was theirs.

I remembered how Trager and Sheridan confided to me that Perkins was homosexual, how his wife was homosexual, and how they had married each other to avoid suspicion and scrutiny. Had they had a baby together to further avoid that suspicion?

Perkins confirmed my thoughts, bringing his wife closer to Sheridan. "This is my wife, Daphne. And this is my favorite girl, Lisa." He gently held onto the baby's hand, his face genuinely shining with real affection. "Daphne, this is one of my best friends, James Sheridan. And Nora Swartz, who's here too. We call her Queen." Sheridan blinked once and recovered.

"I'm happy for you, Perky." He said, his voice carrying more emotion than it probably should have. "You too, Miss Daphne."

Daphne looked nervously between the two of us. She was smiling, but she still looked cautious. Perkins bent lower and I heard him say, "They know, Daph. It's okay."

Daphne visibly relaxed and she looked instantly comfortable and I felt a stab of pity for the both of them having to live in constant fear and worry like this. Daphne glanced to me. "Are you two a couple?" She asked me, pointing at Sheridan.

Sheridan and I both scoffed at the idea at the same time. "Never." I said confidently.

"Not in a million years." Sheridan announced with as much conviction.

Perkins laughed good naturedly and Daphne chuckled awkwardly, looking like she was missing something. I smiled genuinely at Daphne and tried to explain. "He used to make my life a living hell. Hated me like hellfire."

Sheridan nodded in agreement and Daphne turned pink with embarrassment for suggesting us having a relationship. The four of us were still chuckling good naturedly over it when Perkins suddenly stiffened as he saw something beyond me. I followed his gaze and paused when I saw what he saw.

Trager had just left his taxi cab and his eyes were scanning the crowd, clearly looking for someone. I turned back to Perkins. Sheridan and I exchanged a knowing look and Daphne had quickly figured out who her husband was staring at.

"Is that him?" She asked softly. Perkins nodded without tearing his eyes from Trager. I glanced back to Trager and saw that he had spotted Perkins. Both men were frozen as they stared at each other, and I remembered that this was the first time they were seeing each since Perkins got injured and discharged.

Daphne adjusted her hold on Lisa and smiled up at Perkins. "Go say hi. It's okay." Perkins gave Daphne a look of sheer gratitude before he slowly went over to Trager. I moved around to stand beside Daphne. Baby Lisa turned around to stared at me with wide blue eyes and I smiled at the one year old.

"I'll talk to you ladies later," Sheridan said, leaving to slowly approach Trager and Perkins, who were now talking to each other in very quiet voices.

"He's lucky," Danphe said softly, almost to herself. "They get this weekend together. Harold and I talked about it before we left home. If they're both up to it, they can spend the whole weekend together."

I offered her a kind smile. "That's kind of you, for letting him try."

Daphne laughed without mirth. "I would give anything to have the same opportunity. But it's a lot more complicated between me and-" She cut herself off and sighed, the sound of lovesick pain. "She broke things off with me years ago. I don't blame her. She wanted to move to New York and be public about ourselves. I was scared and told her that I never wanted to be public."

I flinched slightly. Lisa cooed and Daphne smiled at her daughter. "I'm sorry, Nora. I didn't mean to throw all of this at you."

"It's fine, Daphne." I replied. "It's good to let these things out. Otherwise they build up. Have you talked to her?"

Daphne shook her head. "She's in New York now. Let's just say the last things we said to each other weren't the friendliest."

"I'm sorry to hear that." I muttered. Daphne nodded, her eyes misty and she looked like she was in another time and place. But then she shook her head slightly and smiled kindly at me.

"Thank you for being so kind." She said. "Not everyone is."

"I can't even imagine." I said. Perkins and Trager embraced each other suddenly and I smiled. "Let's go find spots in the church. It's hotter than hell out here."

"You've got a fun accent," Daphne pointed out as we started into the church. "Where are you from again?"

Daphne and I began comparing homes, from mine in northern Florida to hers in Detroit, Michigan. When we got onto the subject of jobs, she was very interested in the fact that I worked a farm for a living. Meanwhile her teaching career sounded hilarious to me.

"So this woman," Daphne was telling me a story about a student's mother. "Comes into my classroom in the middle of class and demands to speak to me. I'm holding a diagram of the solar system for crying out loud! And I thought it was something important, you know, her son hadn't been in class that day."

"You would think," I agreed, baby Lisa resting in my arms. Lisa was interested in playing with the long necklace around my neck.

"But no!" Daphne exclaimed. "She just wanted to let me know that she felt the grade I gave her son was unfair. Unfair! The boy turned his project in late and got half the assignment wrong, but_ I_ was in the wrong because 'he worked really hard on it.'" She rolled her eyes up to the church ceiling and I laughed heartily. I decided then that I liked Daphne, she was fun when you got her to open up.

Someone plopped down right next to me and I turned to see Snafu sitting there. "You found a baby." He pointed out. Lisa cooed at him and an expression I didn't recognize washed over his face. Sledge sat down on the other side of Snafu and he frowned slightly at the baby in my arms.

I quickly did introductions and Daphne shook both of their hands before taking Lisa back. Perkins came and sat down beside his wife, Trager right behind him and taking the spot on his other side. I quickly caught up with Trager as Sheridan took a seat and Leyden joined our group, finishing out the row.

We weren't waiting for long before the pastor and organ player entered the church through a back door. As the music began to play, the front doors opened again and Burgin came out, being escorted down the aisle by an older woman who was more than likely his mother.

Burgin caught sight of us taking up an entire row and he had to stop himself from laughing too hard. We waved back at him, cheery grins on our faces.

The wedding was beautiful, and so was Florence from Australia. Her family hadn't been able to come due to distance, but those from King Company made up for it by cheering loudly when Burgin and Florence kissed, sealing themselves as husband and wife.

When we finally caught up to Burgin at the reception, he let out a roar and embraced each of us in turn. Burgin lifted me off my feet and spun me around once before setting me back down on the ground. We stayed with the newlyweds until well past midnight. Burgin and Florence had a honeymoon in Havana to go to. The Perkins family (plus Trager) had left earlier in the evening using the baby as an excuse to leave. When Snafu and I finally left, we said goodbye to the newlyweds and promised to hang out with Sledge all day tomorrow.

We were only in our hotel room for five seconds before Snafu grabbed me by the waist from behind and started kissing my neck. "You ever think 'bout kids, Nora?"

"Do _you_ ever think 'bout kids, Snaf?" I countered.

"Yeah," He said it so casually.

I started and detached myself from Snafu, looking at him quizzically. Snafu blinked and raised an eyebrow. "What is it?"

"Trying to figure out if you're saying what I think you're saying."

"What do you think I'm sayin'?"

"I think you're trying to ask if I want to have kids with you."

Snafu shrugged. "And if I am? Figured you woulda figured out by now that I wanna be with you."

"Oh no, I've got that. But adding kids to the mix is a giant commitment. Merriell Shelton, we're barely dating! We're closer to roommates who have sex rather than 'going steady.'"

Snafu snorted at me. "I haven't been with anyone else since you. Have you been with anyone since me?"

"No."

"Good. Then we're going steady."

I shook my head in confusion. "Merriell Shelton, I'm going to need you to be one hundred percent forward with me. Do you want to start having kids? Do you honestly see yourself with me for that long?"

Snafu nodded, looking solemn. "If I didn't, I wouldn't have stuck around as long as I have. I love you, Nora. And I want a real life with you. Build a picket fence around our house and call it the American dream."

Before I could say anything, Snafu lowered himself down onto one knee. "Eleanor Swartz, will you be the mother of my children and let me crash in your house for the rest of time?"

I laughed, feeling tears burn at the back of my eyes. "Well, I've got no other options. Yes, that's fine with me." I chuckled and Sanfu rose back up to kiss me hard. I pushed me away for a moment. "I'm just saying though, it'll probably be easier to raise kids and stick together if we get married."

"I thought that was a given." Snafu said bluntly. He flashed that smile at me again and kissed me some more. I kissed him back and nearly forgot that we were somehow engaged.


End file.
